Peter Rodenkirch

Observations with ALMA of a subset of protoplanetary disks with large cavities, so-called transition disks, have recently been shown to display spectacular structures such as large scale spirals, blobs and tilts. These features indicate that highly dynamic processes are present in transition disks like e.g. dust trapping in vortices and planet induced perturbations, allowing us to test our understanding of the physics of protoplanetary disks. This project aims to understand these structures in terms of dynamic models of disks with the help of 2D and 3D hydrodynamical simulations as well as radiative transfer calculations for comparing the results with recent observations.